6 Ways You Could Be Kidding Yourself In Your Career

The Better-Than-Average Effect

Sommers shares an amazing example of this. He regularly asks his classes how strong their social skills are. Based on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being totally socially inept and 10 being the best. Here’s what he experiences:

“When I ask my students this in class, the average response is an eight or a nine. Even when I tell them to limit their comparison group to Tufts students, far more that have tell me their social skills are better than average. Impressive, no? Either I’m the luckiest professor at the university or a large percentage of those students are kidding themselves.”

Sommers explains the ‘I’m better-than-average’ mentality is quite popular. He cites one study showed 86% of managers believe they are more ethical than their peers. Let’s be honest, how many times have you thought to yourself, “I’m better than my co-workers.” Better still, when’s the last time you contemplated how much better you are than your boss?

QUESTION: When it comes to your job, are you really as good as you think you are?